


The Nose Knows

by bavariansugarcookie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Keith got his mom's sense of smell, Keith's Galra traits manifest earlier, M/M, Soft boys being soft, minor Shiro/ Adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:48:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26255170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bavariansugarcookie/pseuds/bavariansugarcookie
Summary: Keith's always had a better sense of smell than most people - his Dad would always say "You got it from your mama." It came in handy when it rained. Keith could always smell it on the air, giving his Dad a chance to close the shutters and make sure everything was ready for the desert storms to sweep through. "Better than the weatherman," his Dad would say, tousling his hair.Or: The Sheith au where baby Keith always had a strong sense of smell
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 36
Kudos: 167





	The Nose Knows

Keith's always had a better sense of smell than most people - his Dad would always say "You got it from your mama," when Keith caught a whiff of blueberry muffins, hot out of the oven, and dragged him all the way across the grocery store. 

It seemed to make his Dad sad somehow, so Keith would hug his leg in the grocery store line, muffins safely tucked into their cart next to the orange juice and bread.

It came in handy though, when it rained. Keith could always smell it on the air, giving his Dad a chance to close the shutters and make sure everything was ready for the desert storms to sweep through. "Better than the weatherman," his Dad would say, tousling his hair.

***

After his Dad died, it was more of a curse than a blessing - one foster mom, Jessica, wore perfume so strong it gave him headaches hours after she left for work. 

Another foster brother's favorite shrimp breakfast burritos made Keith gag every morning. He spent so many bus rides daydreaming about throwing it out the window. 

No one really believed him, except for his home room teacher after he told her something smelled  _ bad  _ a whole week before anyone noticed. The janitor finally discovered that a mouse had died inside the wall, and she said, "Who knew you had such a good super sniffer?"

But his next foster family lived in a different school district, so the next year he had to start all over again. 

***

When he first moved into the Garrison, his roommate lived in a perpetual cloud of body spray so strong that the scent stuck to Keith's clothes. Keith was always the first one in the shower, the first one in the mess hall, and it didn't take too long for Shiro to notice. 

"I wouldn't have pegged you for an early bird," he teased, ruffling Keith's hair. Keith swatted at him on principle, but he smiled just the same.

"It's the only way to avoid the Axe cloud," he muttered, shrinking down as his roommate walked in so he wouldn't come sit next to them. 

Shiro hummed. "Maybe I can help with that."

Keith shook his head. "No, it's fine, you don't have to do anything…"

But Shiro just smiled. "It's ok, most kids overdo it when they come here. I'll just tell them aerosol bottles are banned or something."

Keith snorted into his orange juice. "Really?"

Shiro winked. "They explode in space, you know."

"We're not  _ in  _ space, Shiro," Keith said, exasperated, but Shiro just laughed and flicked his nose. 

"Just trust me, ok?"

And sure enough, Shiro dropped in on their next training seminar to talk about his lunar flights, and casually mentioned how strict Iverson was about anything pressurized entering the cabin after a disaster in one of the low gravity simulators.

Keith’s roommate was so starstruck that he switched to Axe solid deodorant (he couldn’t risk Takashi Shirogane hearing about him clogging the sim’s ventilation system).

Keith was bewildered, but too thankful to finally be able to breath in his room to ask questions.

One night in the mess hall, Shiro nudged Keith’s shoulder. “I heard that all the hoverbikes got new brakes.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Wanna check ‘em out?” 

Keith grinned up at him. “Sure thing,” he said, scarfing down his dinner as fast as he could. 

As soon as they walked outside, Keith took a deep breath. “Better get there fast. It’s going to rain soon.”

Shiro peered up at the clouds, still big and fluffy and nonthreatening. “We’ll make it a short ride then.”

Keith smiled to himself, jumping into the bike and peeling out before Shiro could get his goggles on.

"Hey!" Shiro shorted, but Keith just sped off with a lazy salute.

Shiro caught up with him, of course, and they had a photo finish at their favorite bluff. Shiro jumped down from his hoverbike, clutching his chest. “You’re going to be the death of me, Fly Boy.”

Keith laughed and jumped down, letting Shiro pull him in for a hug. But his shoulders went stiff when he breathed in and Shiro smelled  _ wrong _ . 

Shiro peered down at him. “Keith? What’s wrong?”

Keith shook his head, trying to place the smell and then he realized - “Why do you smell like Adam?” he asked, scrunching up his nose. 

“Oh,” Shiro said, all the tension draining from his face. “I ran out of deodorant, so I borrowed Adam’s this morning.” He smirked. “Why, is it as bad as your roommate?”

Keith shook his head. “No, it just… doesn’t smell like you.” He felt his ears start to burn. “Sorry, that’s weird…”

But Shiro shook his head. “No, I get it, one of my teachers in school would wear the same perfume as my Grandma sometimes.” He chuckled. “I’d be walking down the hallway and it would smell like Baba was right behind me.”

“I bet it was nice at least,” Keith said. “Jessica used to wear this perfume that smelled like a candle store threw up on her.”

Shiro threw his head back and laughed. “That bad, huh?” Keith nodded emphatically and Shiro bumped his shoulder against Keith’s. 

“I’ll go grab some more deodorant tomorrow. That way I won’t smell as bad as Jessica.”

Keith bit back a grin. “Ok.” 

They got back to the Garrison just as it started to rain, and they sprinted inside, laughing. They were just about to sneak back to the dormitories when they ran into Adam, on his way back from his astronomy lab. 

He sighed, looking at them dripping all over the floor, but Keith noticed his lips turning up at the corners. “Well I guess I know what you two have been up to.”

Shiro grinned and kissed his cheek. “I told you we were gonna test the brakes.”

“Mhmm,” Adam said, biting back a grin.

“Oh, by the way, I need to get more deodorant,” Shiro said. “Keith said yours smells gross.”

“I didn’t say that!” Keith protested. “I said it smelled weird on you.”

Adam laughed. “That’s what you get for stealing my things, Takashi,” he teased.

Shiro spluttered. “I wore that brand first! And then you stole it from me!”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “Sure, babe.”

Keith giggled behind his hand while Shiro pouted. “I can’t believe you’re both ganging up on me like this,” he said, but Keith could tell he was trying not to laugh. 

Adam winked at Keith. “Where have you been, Takashi?” 

“WOW,” Shiro said with a pout, and Keith and Adam burst out laughing, until Shiro eventually joined in. 

***

A year later, Keith was drifting down the grocery store aisle when he saw a buy one get one free coupon for Shiro’s deodorant. It was stupid, he knew it was. It wasn’t like it would bring Shiro back. But somehow two tubes of the deodorant ended up in his grocery basket anyway. 

As ridiculous as it was, when he put the deodorant on the next morning, he really felt more centered. He took a deep breath, remembering the way Shiro’s eyes would light up when they rode out to the bluff, how it felt when Shiro threw an arm around his shoulders.

He shivered, and then he felt that call, so distant he could barely catch it, coming from the desert. He grabbed his keys and ran out to his hoverbike, his feet lighter than they’d been in months.

***

Then Shiro came back in a blaze of light and a crash as loud as thunder, and Keith could hardly believe that Shiro was here, in his Dad’s house, in his bed.

Keith tried not to hover in the morning, but when he showed Shiro the bathroom, Shiro's gaze landed on the deodorant.

"Keith," Shiro whispered, and Keith blushed a bright, boiling red. 

"I know it's dumb -" he said, but Shiro grabbed him and pulled him in for a hug. Keith let himself go boneless in Shiro's arms, and Shiro whispered "I missed you so much, Keith."

Keith nodded into Shiro's chest, too close to tears to risk saying it out loud. But Shiro understood, holding Keith close until his stomach growled so loud that Keith laughed and went to get Shiro something for breakfast.

And if Shiro's strange purple clothes were tear-stained when he pulled away, Shiro was nice enough not to mention it.

When Shiro came out of the bathroom, wearing his dad's old vest and smelling like himself again, Keith fell into his arms again, and everything finally felt like it was going to be ok.

***

When Keith joined the Blades, he discovered that his sense of smell was weaker than most of the other Galra. Thace insisted that Galra could sense people's mood shifts based on their scent.

But sometimes his senses came in handy, because he didn't get as overstimulated as the others.

One night when the Paladins met the Blades for a rendezvous, Regris scooped Keith up in a hug so that Keith's feet were dangling above the ground.

"Regris!" Keith yelped, laughing, and Regris grinned up at him. But then he froze and put Keith back on the ground.

"Wha-" Keith asked, confused.

But then he felt a familiar hand rest on his shoulder and caught Shiro's scent. 

"Why didn't you tell me you had a mate?" Regris said. 

Keith was totally bewildered now. "I don't -" But he glanced up at Shiro and noticed how red his cheeks were.

Regris gave Keith a Cheshire cat grin that made Keith wish he could hide behind his Blade mask. "Are you sure about that?" he asked, before he sauntered off to catch up with Krolia.

He was insufferably smug about it when Keith and Shiro FINALLY got their shit together.

Krolia was gracious enough not to mention it, but Keith was convinced she knew all along. 

He did get his sense of smell from her, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! <3 It was so fun to write about this, since all these moments have happened to me (except for the dead mouse in the wall, which happened to my Mom - I got my sense of smell from her too). And yes, I did ask my now-husband to go back to his old deoderant because he smelled like his roommate and it was just too weird! XD
> 
> You can find me over on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bavariancookie) if you want to talk about Sheith!


End file.
